1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to media acquisition and, more particularly, to acquisition of digital media assets in a client-server environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, an online media store, such as the iTunes Music Store® offered by Apple Computer, Inc., allows music to be purchased using credit cards, prepayments or free song credits. With credit cards, as a song or album is purchased, the purchaser's credit card can be charged for the cost of the song or album. Prepayments can be provided to users by music cards (i.e., gift cards) or gift certificates. A recipient of a music card can redeem the music card for its credit value based on its face value denomination, such as $15, $25, $30 and $50, at the iTunes Music Store®. These music cards can be purchased at retailers as is commonly done with gift cards. The gift certificates are also able to be redeemed at the iTunes Music Store®. However, gift certificates purchased in United States may only be redeemed by residents of the United States. Once a music card or gift certificate has been redeemed, the associated dollar amount is credited to the user's account. Each time music is purchased from the iTunes Music Store®, the iTunes Music Store® reduces the credit in the user's account until fully depleted.
Free song credits can be provided by a card, a bottle cap and the like which include a song code. The song code is a code that is used when redeeming the card, bottle cap or the like for the free song credits from the iTunes Music Store®. Thereafter, as desired, the user can subsequently choose a song they would like to purchase from the iTunes Music Store®. When a song is to be purchased, the iTunes Music Store® will use any free song credit to pay for the song before using a credit card that is on file for the user. The free song credits can be stored for the user by the iTunes Music Store® until they are consumed or expire, whichever comes first. In addition, once the user has signed into their account, iTunes® can display the available free song credits for user. The iTunes Music Store® offers songs at $0.99 each, hence, the free song credits are only for the purchase of songs (i.e., not albums). Hence, the free song credits allow a user to purchase songs without having to pay for them.
Unfortunately, however, free song credits are only usable to purchase songs. When songs are offered for purchase at more than one price and at different prices and/or currency in different countries, there are complications in ensuring that the free song credits are properly used. Thus, there is a need for improved approaches to managing utilization of free credits at an online media store.